Exercise Girl Akane
by Jebe
Summary: This was originally written in response to an SB challenge to make Akane likeable and competitive. Akane's characterization from Chapter 1 was used to rework her into a coherent character that fit the bill. The dynamic feels about right from a characterization standpoint, but has been adapted to fit a more realistic style. [R/A][Yuri]
1. Chapter 1

Exercise Girl Akane

Chapter 1

[-]

Akane observed a strange sight on as she started making her way back home. She was rapidly coming up on a panda that was walking upright. While a panda walking the streets of Tokyo was a strange enough sight on its own, there was something else that caused her to slow down. Slung over the panda's shoulder was an unconscious red haired girl. Taking a moment to assess the situation, Akane noted that the beast hadn't yet noticed her. The most obvious avenue of attack was a jump kick to the beast's head, but that would probably injure the limp girl the bear was carrying in the process. She needed to figure out some way to get the limp girl away from it.

As she continued to observe the unusual sight of a bear walking upright standing up, Akane got an idea. Picking up her pace she ran up on the bear's right side and delivered a vicious kick to the back of its knee. As she predicted the bear's knee collapsed and it began to fall over. Moving quickly Akane grabbed the girl, and used the bear's body as a spring board to launched herself further away. Looking back from the roof of a nearby house, Akane saw the bear struggling to get back up. Part of her felt she should take it down, and make sure animal control picked up what was very clearly a dangerous animal. The girl resting in her arms though took priority. Besides, she doubted that bear would be able to walk anytime soon, and someone had to have already called animal control.

Deciding to split the difference Akane picked up a large rock, and threw it as hard as she could at the Panda's head. The rock managed to successfully slam into the side of the bear's cranium causing it to crumple to the ground. Turning towards one of the nearby residents Akane told them to call Animal Control, and moved on to carry the girl home.

[-]

Akane hovered over the red haired girl as Kasumi carefully treated her wounds. She wasn't badly injured, but the girl was suffering from a concussion. As she watched the girl's eyes fluttered open. The mysterious red head groggily looked around in confusion, but didn't move her head.

"You're safe." Kasumi said, resting a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder which Akane knew from personal experience could quickly be shifted to hold her down. "You took a bad bump to the head, and my little sister saved you."

The girl blinked, and her eyes moved to focus on her. "Thanks." The girl said with a warm smile. She looked so defenseless.

"Could you tell us your name?" Kasumi asked pleasantly.

The girl slowly turned to look at Kasumi. "Ranma Saotome, but there's really no one to call. Me and Dad just kind of drift from place to place."

Akane quickly recognized the implication that the girl was homeless. She shot Kasumi a look, and Kasumi responded with a slight nod before she made her way out of the room.

[-]

Soun looked at the postcard again. Something must have happened, Genma was supposed to arrive today. He was almost grateful that Akane had found that red haired girl when out on her run. The interruption had prevented him from telling them about Genma's son, but it also meant that he wasn't going to lose face over that fat bastard being late. Knowing him he had stopped for a drink, without him. How ungrateful could he be?

"Father, the girl has woken up." Kasumi declared as she made her way gracefully down the stairs. "I know it's a long shot, but have you ever heard of someone called Ranma Saotome?"

"Why yes." Soun declared perking up. Did she have word of Genma's son?

"That's what the girl said her name was. Given you've heard of her I'm sure you can use your contacts to find her father." Kasumi said with a slightly dangerous undertone. "Until then I was thinking we could let her stay here. Maybe see if she has someone who would take her in." She finished pleasantly with a smile.

Soun paused, knowing better than to inspire Kasumi's wrath he just nodded. He could explain later when Genma showed up, and explained what was going on.

[-]

"So you have to be pretty good to have taken down that panda." Akane enjoyed the compliment. It wasn't like those boys at school who just complimented her on every little thing, because they thought that she would favor them. It was all so tiresome. For once she'd like a guy to just pay her an honest compliment.

"Thanks, my Dad runs a Dojo. Although usually we just host exercise classes, he taught me how to fight. I don't want to brag, but I'm really strong." Akane couldn't help but pump her fist.

Ranma grinned at her, and seemed to relax. "Would you mind showing me?" She asked enthusiastically.

Akane was taken aback. Ranma didn't think she was weird? Or some kind of exercise freak? She actually really thought she was cool?

[-]

Akane was impressed. Considering the girl was still recovering from a hit to the head, she was doing amazingly well. She was really glad that she had setup a partner workout today, as they made their way through the various stations. Ranma wasn't able to do her sets as fast as her of course, but she could keep up. After the half hour mark passed she could see the red haired girl was starting to slow down a little, and of course her clothes were starting to get soaked with sweat.

[-]

Akane handed Ranma a towel as the red haired girl tried to catch her breath. "You did really well." Akane complimented. This kind of workout wasn't something most people handled that well the first time normally. Given the girl was suffering from a concussion she was amazed at how the girl had been able to keep it together.

She started to make her way over to a small building of more recent construction that sat just off the side of the covered walkway between the main building and the dojo. It was a little juice bar where they sold a variety of drinks, and prepared protein shakes. She was intending to take advantage of the latter.

Ranma followed her, and popped up onto one of the bar stools as she started using the blender to prepare a protein shake. "A milkshake?" Ranma asked, clearly bubbling with curiosity.

"No, it's a protein shake. It'll help you recover from the workout, and build muscle." Akane explained.

Ranma nodded happily. "Can I have a cherry on top?" She requested.

Akane smiled back and pulling out a jar of maraschino cherries, put one on top before pushing the finished protein shake over.

[-]

Akane waited in the furo's changing room. Given the blow Ranma had taken to the head, she couldn't exactly just leave the girl alone. She had raised the prospect of bathing together, but the girl had been too shy. So she had split the difference, and had decided to wait in the changing room. Besides she didn't want to stay in those disgusting sweaty clothes, or put something on just to take it off again. So she was waiting in her towel. They were both girls so it should be fine.

Akane was just starting to resign herself to waiting awhile when the door slid open. A very content looking red headed girl that was patting herself with a towel, that was doing very little to conceal her, stood in the doorway. With an "eep" the girl whirled around, causing her butt to jiggle.

"Akane?! What are you doing here?" Ranma asked, an edge of nervousness creeping into her voice. Akane was struck again by just how defenseless the girl was.

Akane walked over to her, and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. If you fell and injured yourself after taking that blow to the head, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Akane felt Ranma relax a little. "Thanks." She said quietly.

Akane decided to give her a hug, causing Ranma to stiffen slightly. "It's going to be okay." She soothed. Ranma turned back towards her slightly, and stopped. Akane could see confusion on her face, and something else. Akane quickly let go, and walked past her friend into the furo. As she heard the door slide shut behind her she was left alone with the question of what that had been.

[-]

Ranma kicked her feet as she sat on the edge of the roof. The last time she'd felt something like that was when Shampoo had kissed her. Maybe it was because this girl today was being so nice. The plan had just been to learn what she could, and pick up any neat tricks she could before Pops came by to pick her up. Then it'd be on to the next place, just like it had always been.

Apparently her father wanted her to meet some girl. A girl she had no doubt would freak the second she found out about her secret. She didn't believe her father's assurances that somehow an arranged marriage would make a girl go along with this.

[-]

Akane looked over at her window as she heard something tapping on the glass. Looking over she saw Ranma dangling upside down in front of her window. Reacting quickly Akane opened the window and pulled her in.

"Are you okay?" Akane asked, as she held the girl close.

"Oh come on, you're overreacting." Ranma responded as she extricated herself.

Akane stopped, and stared her down. "No, I'm not! You took a bad blow to your head today. How could you even think about dangling yourself off the edge of a roof like that? What would have happened if you had fell?"

"I'd have landed on my feet." Ranma responded confidently.

Akane threw up her hands in exasperation. "You're staying here tonight." Who knew what she'd get into if left to her own devices.

For some reason Ranma didn't argue the point.

[-]

Akane woke up to find her room empty. The futon that Ranma had slept in was neatly folded and set to the side. Akane had a sinking feeling as she realized that Ranma may have simply left. Getting out of bed, she quickly checked the window to find it still closed. Maybe... Just maybe... Akane rushed to her door, and opening it rushed downstairs. As she made her way down the stairs she overhead a male voice.

"This is the place you meant, Pops?"

"Yes son, this is the prestigious Tendo Dojo."

Akane quickened her pace, and spotted a boy and an old man in the foyer. She had seen the type before, Dojo destroyers. They wandered Japan around challenging entire Dojos for their signs. Tradition said that they had to fight the weakest student and work their way up, but she preferred to take them head on. "You've come here to challenge the Dojo haven't you?"

The boy looked at her thoughtfully. "How many students does your Dojo have?"

"Boy, we are not here to challenge the Dojo!" The old man bellowed at the boy. Turning politely to her, with the utmost respect and deference he said. "I apologize for my son. Truly I'm a failure as a father to have brought up such a disrespectful son."

"But Pops you're always the one telling me that busting Dojos is the best way to train, because you can see the entire progression of the techniques of that school." The boy objected.

The old man clamped a hand over the boy's mouth. "I don't know what's gotten in to him." He pulled the boy close for some hushed words.

Akane stood her ground trying to look intimidating as she stood there with her arms crossed, in her yellow duckie pajamas. Part of her mind wandered as she considered what had become of her friend, but she couldn't exactly backdown from a pair of Dojo destroyers threatening her Dojo. Even if they were in the process of trying to come up with some lame excuse for how they weren't Dojo destroyers, they were clearly Dojo destroyers. Probably rampant ones too, although she hadn't heard Dad talking about any recently.

The boy nodded finally. "We're not here to challenge your Dojo. We just want your secret techniques." He said with an amused smile.

"Boy!" The old man objected, looking ready to tear into him.

"Whatever." Akane finally declared, losing patience with this. "If you're here to challenge us come back this evening. If you're not wait here." It wasn't like they'd get far into the house anyways.

"What's all the commotion about?" Kasumi asked pleasantly as she walked into the foyer.

"A pair of Dojo destroyers that are too chicken to actually challenge us. They're probably just afraid of getting beaten by a girl." Akane threw the last barb in annoyance at how much of her time they'd wasted.

"You hear that Pops, she thinks she can beat me." The boy just couldn't keep his mouth shut.

She had, had just about enough of him. She moved to deliver a right hook, only for him to slip past her fist. Not wanting to waste her momentum she shifted into a kick. Her foot was going to cross his body on a diagonal. No matter what he did from his current position it should connect and then it would be sweet, sweet vengeance time.

"Wha?" Akane just stared as the boy casually hopped and flipped over her leg. Akane brought her leg down. "Whatever, I have more important things to do."

Leaving them in Kasumi's capable hands she walked off to see if she could find her missing friend.

[-]

"So this is my friend Genma, and his son Ranma." Soun explained. Akane just stared forward with practiced disinterest. What was her father thinking? This jackass clearly just wanted to steal their Dojo's secrets before moving on to the next one. What was the point of even humoring this stupidity? "He'll be going to school with you, and staying with us for awhile."

"What?!" Akane couldn't hold it back anymore. "You're letting that acrobat pansy stay here?! He's just here to steal our secrets!"

The annoying boy with the same name as her friend feigned as if he was injured. Akane humphed, and looked imploringly at her Dad. He had to realize that this was a scam. Couldn't he see how sleazy that old man looked?"

"It's okay. We agreed that our children should be married to bring together the two Schools of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Given Ranma is 16, we thought you'd be the best choice."

"What?!"

[-]

"We are not getting married." Akane ground out as the retarded jerkface traipsed along the top of the fence. Clearly he was too much of a weak pansy to practice regular weight training like her. She was wearing weights on her wrist, ankles, and even had a weighted vest she was wearing under her uniform. She was training her body constantly, unlike this dork who was just playing around.

He just kept walking, and acting like she wasn't even there. "Did you say something?" He said after a moment.

"I said I'd never marry a jerk like you!"

The boy reaching the end of the fence skillfully hopped off, and spun to face her. "And what makes you think I'd be interested in someone like you?" He said confidently.

Akane was just about to give him a piece of her mind when a stream of water hit the boy, and he wasn't a boy anymore. On the periphery of her vision Akane saw the old lady who washed the streets going about her business. Her redheaded friend stood in the boy's place, looking weird in the now oversized boy's uniform.

The girl sighed. "Of course it'd happen now." She mumbled. "This is the point where you tell me we aren't friends right?" Akane could hear the bitterness in her voice. How? Why?

Not waiting for an answer the girl shoved her hands in her pockets, and spinning around started trudging towards school. Akane just stared for a long moment, unsure what to do. After a moment she grabbed the girl, hugging her from behind. The girl stopped, and Akane could feel in the girl's posture that she was feeling conflicted.

"Can't we still be friends?" Akane asked.

Ranma glanced at her, and turned away slightly to study some bit of scenery. Akane felt Ranma's smaller hand slip on top of her own, and slip her fingers in between her own. Given she was holding her hand close, Akane decided that was a yes.

Akane looked over at the girl as they continued to walk, her hand resting in her friend's. The girl was smiling. Akane's mind was still trying to sort this all out. This was the girl from last night, of that much she was certain. The girl was shy like last night, and hadn't really said anything. She seemed happy to just be walking with her, holding hands. Akane wasn't sure what to think about the whole boy thing right now. For the moment she was content to just hold her friend's hand as they walked.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Akane tried.

Ranma's cheeks went red as she turned towards her, and then quickly looked away. Akane wished she could figure out what was bothering her. Maybe she was embarrassed about how that boy she apparently shared a body with had acted towards her? Yeah, that had to be it. She was such a sweet girl, and that guy was so uncool.

"I... Well you see..." Ranma stuttered, starting to speak before quickly trailing off and stopping while studying the ground. Akane felt Ranma squeezing her hand, and Akane decided to reassure her by squeezing her hand in turn. Ranma's cheeks turned red.

Akane was still trying to figure out what to say when she realized she was standing in front of the school. Wheeling on around she moved in front of her friend as the boys moved in to block her way to the school building, as usual. Akane gritted her teeth as she realized she would need to take them down quickly today.

[-]

Ranma watched as Akane launched herself into a large number of boys. The boys were dressed in a variety of sports attire with a wide variety of sports equipment, but her attention was drawn to Akane as those weird heady feelings continued. The first boy Akane reached was dressed up in full soccer gear. Akane grabbed his opening kick, and spun around using him to bat away anyone who got close. A moment later she let him go to slam into a group of them.

A guy in full Kendo gear was next to work up enough nerve to actually attack her. Akane skillfully caught his strike, and ripping him bodily off his feet via his bamboo sword used him as a giant flail smashing a path forward. After a few meters the boy lost his grip, and went careening off to slam into a tree. Unperturbed Akane simply flipped the shinai around and started smashing away, while using her book bag as a shield, her progress only slightly slowed as she continued to smash her way towards the school.

Ranma spared a moment to glance around her, and saw a lot of the boys who had been hovering on the periphery were moving in to pull away their fallen. They seemed far more concerned with their companions than the one who had felled them. Ranma paused, this didn't feel right. Akane seemed to be handling herself just fine, so Ranma focused on trying to figure out what was going on here.

[-]

Akane burst through only for a tall boy standing separate from the crowd to step into her way. He was wearing traditional Japanese attire, and smelling a red rose while casually holding a bokken in the other hand. Ranma decided he looked like a complete doofus. Who actually did that?

"It is a beautiful morning is it not?" The guy announced as he idly twirled the rose between his fingers, apparently talking to the flower.

Ranma saw Akane's posture stiffen. "Good morning, Kuno." Akane said with forced civility.

"Yonder sun however is not but a faint shadow of your brilliance, yonder sky but a spec compared to your beauty, and this rose but a mere token of the affection I feel for you." Having spoken his piece, with a flick of his wrist her sent the rose flying through the air on a trajectory that would intercept with Akane's chest. Akane batted it to the side. Ranma was just about to step in, when the boy looked up.

"What is this vision of loveliness that accompanies you, my fair Akane?" Ranma suppressed a gag as she realized that she was being hit on.

"I'm..." Ranma started to respond.

The flippant flop interrupted her. "But is it not traditional for one to introduce themselves first?" Not waiting for an answer, the doofus continued. "I am the great Tatewaki Kuno, heir apparent to the house of Kuno and rising star in the world of Kendo. I have promised my affection to the fair Akane but you may win the right to have a place in my heart, **if** you can defeat me." Well he was full of himself, wasn't he?

"Can I just beat you up for annoying my friend?" Ranma asked with a smirk as she cracked her knuckles.

Her smirk deepened as she saw "The Great Kuno" do a double take. She was just about to take him down a notch when he was launched into the second story with a crash and a cloud of dust. Her attention moved back down to see Akane standing there with a sheepish grin as she tossed away a now splintered baseball bat that she'd picked up in the process of going through the horde of boys.

[-]

"Young lady, you should be wearing a girl's uniform." The teacher observed, stopping by Ranma's desk.

"Actually if you look at the school rules it just says you need to wear **a** school uniform. There's nothing in there that specifies that a girl needs to wear a girl's uniform." Ranma responded calmly before looking back at her book.

The teacher paused, started to say something and then thought better of it. Ranma couldn't believe that line actually worked.

[-]

Akane looked over towards Ranma's seat as lunch finally arrived, only to find her already gone. Akane sighed, that's the way it always seemed to go. She stood up, and made her way to the cafeteria. As she started to pick a table she noticed Mizuki from the track team and one of her friends from the track team leaving the lunch line.

"Hey Mizuki." Akane greeted.

"Hey Akane, thanks for helping us out at that track meet last week." Mizuki greeted warmly.

"Could I sit with you?" Akane asked, trying to keep the hopeful tone under control.

Mizuki looked at her friend from the track team, and Akane already knew the answer. Mizuki was be nice enough to try be polite about it, but she wasn't welcome. Akane mentally sighed, and made her way towards an unoccupied table. At least Kasumi had packed a nice lunch for her.

She had almost reach one of the tables in the back, when someone appeared in front of her. Akane blinked as she focused on the person in front of her, and realized it was Ranma still wearing the boys uniform she had started the day with. She was leaning forward slightly from the waist, which with the looseness the uniform already have meant she could see down Ranma's shirt. Akane blinked and realized Ranma was holding something behind her back while looking at her inquisitively.

"Guess what I got?" Ranma asked, her voice full of enthusiasm. Akane started to respond, but Ranma couldn't contain herself. Proudly holding out a pair of packaged bread she declared. "Curry Bread. I beat the line and got us some before they ran out."

She... she... really did care.

"Akane..." Ranma objected, as Akane hugged her.

"Thank you."

"It's just bread." Ranma weakly protested.

[-]

Ranma kicked her feet as she sat on a bench watching Akane play tennis. What Akane lacked in finesse she was making up for in brute strength, if at the expense of a small pile of broken rackets. At this point the other team was paranoid about returning balls Akane had really loaded up on. They had started making some adjustments to their technique to compensate for the "Tennis ball of death" but the rest of Furinkan girl's tennis team was carrying well enough she was pretty sure they were going to win.

She couldn't help but notice that there was a distance between Akane and the Tennis regulars. In some cases she had even noticed an air of wariness or possibly even fear expressed by the regulars towards Akane. It was almost like Akane was some kind of dangerous weapon that they turned on their enemies. It felt so wrong, but she felt like she would just make it worse if she called attention to it.

As the game broke up she noticed that the tennis team avoided Akane as they made their way to the locker room. They weren't mean about it, but it was clear that they weren't treating her as one of them or really including her in their celebration of victory.

[-]

Ranma pondered the day's events as she waited on Akane to come back out of the locker room. Her clever strategy to try to get away from all this and back on the road had failed horribly, and like with Shampoo before her heart was racing around this girl. If anything it was harder to place where that was coming from than Shampoo.

Shampoo was elegant, pretty, and just so amazing. Akane wasn't. She was rather tomboyish and awkward, although she… Ranma tried to mentally shove the dirty thoughts away, but they seemed to if anything to come back stronger.

"I'm back." Her cheeks started burning as she felt Akane's presence behind her.

"Hi Akane." She said quickly as she turned in greeting, and quickly turned towards the sidewalk and started walking towards the Tendo residence. It was probably too much to hope for that Akane hadn't noticed her blush. At least she probably wouldn't guess at the reason.

Akane hugged her tightly from behind, making her heart thud in her chest. "You waited for me."

Could she? No, of course she didn't. It had to be something else. Why did the feeling of Akane's strong arms around her feel so nice and comforting? She turned slightly and saw something was bothering Akane. She stamped down hard on the thought to try to kiss her. She had already learned the hard way that girls tended to react badly to that sort of thing. She quickly turned away realizing her face was going to give her away.

"Of course, you're my friend." Ranma responded, trying to keep her voice sounding normal.

Akane gave her a little squeeze, and started walking home. Ranma was relieved that somehow Akane seemed to still be oblivious to the thoughts that were running through her head.

[-]

Ranma stared in the direction of the tea that had just flown out of nowhere to nail him in the face, only to see an entire outdoor cafe with over a dozen potential perpetrators. The hot stinging liquid continued to drip off his face as he growled in their direction. As happy as he was to be restored to him true form getting a faceful of hot stinging tea, again, grated.

He glanced over at Akane and was immediately struck by how tomboyish she was. What was up with his girl form? Akane wasn't cute at all.

[-]

Author's Notes:

This was inspired by a few things. Part of it is that I wanted to look at adapting Akane properly, and this made for a side project to do so. I also was responding to some thoughts others had come up with about Akane being competitive.

For those of you not on Spacebattles, this adaptation follows my habit of using elements from the initial introduction of a Ranma character, and trying build a coherent person out of that. So in Akane's case when she's introduced, she's framed as an exercise nut who the boys think is "weird" to quote Nabiki. In the source material after the Meet the Tendos arc Takahashi immediately contradicted herself by making Akane excessively popular.

So with this Akane we're looking at a girl that fits that original profile, while bridging enough to maintain character coherency. So Akane is largely considered weird, and is a social outcast by her peers even though they respect what she is capable of tying into the running proposals to have Akane participate in sport X that existed early in the source material's run.

The yuri side of Ranma is one of those things which is amazingly underutilized in fanfiction. In the source material in Chapter 13 and the associated Anime Episode, girl type Ranma and Akane share this extended touching moment with each other on the roof. But fluke you say? Go back and look at the Kiss of Death scene in either the manga or anime source material where they're not subtle about it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

[-]

Akane found him sitting on the side of one of the canals, skipping rocks. Clearly wrapped up in his own thoughts. She felt a little guilty about their earlier conversation, which had led to him deciding he had, had enough.

"What do you want muscle freak?" Ranma snapped at her, while not paying her enough mind to turn towards her or even pause in his rock skipping.

She bit back a retort about how he was a dancing pansy. She may have thrown in some barbs about how he didn't have enough endurance to satisfy a woman, after he had started talking about how she wasn't feminine enough for anyone to want to marry her. Deciding it best to ignore the insult, she picked up a rock and chucked it into the water, sending it farther than the pansy's rock before it touched the water with a big splash.

Ranma looked at her in disdain. "The point is to skip the rock. Like this." He slowed down his movements to demonstrate more clearly.

"Yeah, but I can throw it farther than you can." Akane smirked triumphantly.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "The point is not to throw it as hard as you can." He picked up a rock and skipped it across the canal where it got lost in the weeds on the other side. "Top that."

Akane picked up a rock and threw it, which buried itself in the dirt on the other side creating a small dirt cloud. She smiled triumphantly at him.

"That's not the point." Ranma shot back emphasizing his words. "Didn't your father ever teach your brute force isn't everything?"

"I beat up boys all the time." She shot back. His acrobatics wouldn't be any different.

He snorted. "You think you can beat me?" He asked incredulously as he fell into a loose fighting stance.

Akane smirked. She would put this dojo destroyer wannabe in his place, like all the others. She opened with a vicious kick to his side but Ranma dropped suddenly, and she felt her leg being kicked out from under her. She lost track of what was happening as she suddenly found herself flying towards the canal.

As she hit the water, she struggled to try to keep her head above water. Even after all the swimming lessons that Kasumi had tried to send her to, she still couldn't help but freak out when her head went under water.

[-]

Akane looked over at the sopping wet girl sitting near her as she as she finally calmed down enough to think clearly. She had rescued her. Akane noticed that the girl was shivering, and realized she was freezing.

"How about we share body heat?" She suggested.

Ranma looked at her and blushed before quickly looking away. After arguing so long with the boy one, the girl's shyness seemed more pronounced. Akane scooped up and held the smaller red haired girl close.

"I can walk." Ranma weakly protested.

"Thank you for saving me." Akane started carrying her home.

[-]

"Boy!"

Ranma looked over to see the old man fuming. "What?"

"Why did you go to school as a girl?!"

"Because water happens." Ranma rolled his eyes. It wasn't like he had wanted to go as a girl. "So I guess we'll have to go somewhere else then, right?"

Genma scowled at him. "You're not in a position to be choosy about women, boy."

"And whose fault is that, Old Man? If we go back to China maybe we could find some way to…"

"Enough, boy." Genma growled. "We will waste no more time chasing legends and fairy tales."

[-]

Ranma left the room feeling annoyed. As he had so many times before in recent months he considered the possibility of striking out on his own. As he finished sliding the door closed behind him he turned to find Akane beaming at him about something. He didn't feel like dealing with her right now.

"It's time for your workout." Akane announced confidently.

He just stared at her for a moment. Talk about an exercise nut. "Not feeling it." He shot back.

"What? You afraid of being beaten by a girl?"

He saw what she was trying to do. She was trying to bait him into participating in her exercise routine so she could claim victory after he had beaten her at the canal. "As if. Did you spend all evening trying to come up with a routine, hoping you could beat me?"

She glared at him, and he smiled back. "How about I pick the work out?"

[-]

"Hey Nabiki, could you let Akane and Ranma know it's time for dinner?" Nabiki grumbled to herself. Like it was that much more effort for Kasumi to tell them herself.

Putting down her manga, Nabiki begrudgingly complied. After verifying neither Akane or Ranma were in their respective rooms, the den, the furo, the bathroom, or any of the other obvious places in the house she conceded to the necessity of walking on the cold stone path to the dojo.

"What are you two doing?"

"I'm showing this weakling that he's no match for me."

"Yeah right, your arm's quaking."

"No, it's not!"

"So what you're saying is you idiots are balancing on your ring finger, because you want to see who gives up first?" Nabiki asked.

"Yes!" The pair of them responded in unison. Nabiki decided to not rub in the fact they'd just agreed to being idiots.

"Well when you're done Kasumi wanted to let you know that dinner is ready."

Rather than the two of them throwing in the towel, they started yelling insults at each other about who was going to give up first. Clearly they're made for each other.

[-]

Ranma glared at Akane from across the table, stoically resisting the urge to rub the spot where Kasumi had hit both of them when they'd refused to come in for dinner. "I was going to beat you."

"Sure you were." Akane responded in a tone that conveyed her complete and utter lack of belief that was true.

Ranma rolled his eyes. She was full of herself. Who did that tomboy think she was fooling? The sooner he and Pops could get back on the road the better. Why…

Ranma glared at her father, as he put down his water glass. "You two need to stop fighting." Blah, blah honor. Blah, blah duty. Blah, blah I'm your father, and you should do what I say.

Ranma rolled her eyes, and started to get up to leave, before thinking better of it when a glint appeared in Kasumi's eyes. She glanced over at her father who was reaching a crescendo about how it was her duty to marry Akane, and performed a fast rapid strike to the back of his neck. If the big dork had been paying attention, instead of lecturing her about what a wonderful matchmaker he was, maybe he wouldn't be face down in his rice now would he?

"Ranma." Kasumi said reproachfully. She didn't really have a bone to pick with Kasumi specifically, but that was _it_.

Standing up she glared across the table at Kasumi. "What's it to you? Are you telling me I'm supposed to accept _this_? I'm supposed to marry someone I don't even know, because **he** says so?"

Recognizing she needed to cool off before she did something she was going to regret, Ranma walked out and made her way to the roof.

[-]

After verifying her suspicion that Ranma was hiding out on the roof, Akane made her way up only to find Ranma turned in on herself. At this point she knew the girl well enough to recognize that she knew she was here.

After waiting a few minutes of silence she decided to try talking. "Are you okay?"

"No." The response was quiet, and she could hear the frustration in Ranma's voice.

"Do you want to talk about it? That's what friends are for right?" She tried.

Ranma sat up and looked at her, but her body language was resigned. "Akane, I…" She looked away as her words trailed off.

Akane scooted closer, and wrapped and arm around her. It was probably due to that jerk she had to share a body with. Ranma seemed less distraught as she settled against her, but there was an odd look in her eye Akane couldn't make sense of. "I'm here for you. That's what friends are for, right?"

[-]

Author's Notes:  
Part of the challenge this effectively was written in response to was for them to be competitively at each others throats. The irony is what I'm doing here where they're about ready to rip each others heads off in a way that's slowly turning into something else is how a lot of people say the relationship is supposed to work between these two, but I can't think of another fanfic that does it.

Also we've established an important rule of the Tendo household in this chapter, while Akane remains oblivious as to what's actually bothering Ranma.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

[-]

Ranma had gotten up early with the intent of bathing without her father's interference. After she had come down from the roof last night her father had chewed her out. She still couldn't understand why the Old Man was so insistent on sticking around here. Usually he let her in on his schemes enough to have a rough idea what was going on. Surely he couldn't be serious with this one.

Ranma looked at herself in the mirror as she started brushing out her hair. Last night it had felt like she had had a real connection with Akane. Maybe she actually did like her? She sighed happily at the thought. Akane was so cool…

"Ranma are you in there?" That was Akane's voice!

"I'll be out in a minute." She called back. She had wanted to be alone with her thoughts longer, but it would be nice to talk with Akane again. Some perverted thoughts about Akane joining her in the bath flitted through her mind. She giggled at that. Akane wasn't that kind of girl.

Ranma froze as she heard the door slide open. "Akane?" What was she thinking?

"We're both girls." Akane responded dismissively, like that answered everything. "You don't need to be so shy."

Ranma felt heat rising in her cheeks as she turned away, unsure what to do. Akane probably wasn't going to try anything perverted, but still she was here in the bath with her, naked.

Ranma jumped as someone, who could only be Akane, sat down next to her to use the other faucet. Of course she was going to sit there, Ranma reassured herself. It wasn't like Akane was going to…

"Could you wash my back?" Akane asked like it wasn't a big deal.

Ranma glanced over at her, and felt her blush immediately deepen. Quickly looking away she tried to figure out some excuse that wouldn't give her away. She really didn't have that much experience with this kind of thing.

"Haven't you been to a bath house before?" Akane asked, her voice tinged with amusement. Ranma quickly shook her head, just wanting to leave. Sure she'd been to bathhouses before, but not with a girl she liked.

Ranma flinched as she felt hands touch her back. What was Akane doing now? Akane started gently rubbed her back, before eventually settling on massaging her shoulders. She found herself simultaneously hopeful and terrified of the thought that Akane might cop a feel, or go even further.

"Feeling better?" She asked. Ranma quickly nodded, unsure of what Akane intended to do next.

Ranma heard the door slide shut, and stared after her.

[-]

Ranma picked at her breakfast as she thought about what had happened in the furo. She couldn't make sense of what Akane's intentions had been. Thoughts that Akane shared her feeling kept flitting through her mind, and she kept dismissing them. What Akane had done was probably nothing special between girls. Certainly that was the way she had treated it, but she doubted Akane would do such things with any girl.

"You look nice with your hair down." Ranma turned at the sound of Akane's voice.

"Thank you." She managed to get out. She had put her hair down hoping Akane would notice, but actually having the girl she liked notice and compliment her was a new experience.

"Akane, I don't think she's used to that much attention." Kasumi commented. Ranma's fists tightened, but she managed to avoid doing anything that would give her away.

"You'd better protect her from the boys." Nabiki added, obviously teasing.

"Will you two stop?" Akane objected in annoyance. "What's your problem?"

"You and your girlfriend just look so cute together." Nabiki continued. Ranma had to smile a little at that.

"It's not like that." Even though Akane was flatly denying that they were an item, it kind of feels nice the way she was defending her.

Nabiki smirked, while Kasumi added, "There's nothing wrong with liking girls, Akane."

Akane rolled her eyes. "Come on Ranma, let's leave these two _perverts_ alone." She stuck out her tongue at Kasumi before leaving the dining room, taking care to make sure her dishes were washed and loaded into the dishwasher before leaving. Ranma decided it wise to follow suit. Kasumi was kind of a stickler about those kinds of things.

"Can you believe them?!" Akane lit off into a rant about her sisters teasing her about them being a couple. Ranma moved to walk next to her, and was gratified when Akane held her hand.

Ranma nodded, and was agreeable as Akane continued to rant on. She felt wonderful as they walked together to school, and had to suppress an urge to quiet Akane's protests with something that would completely give her away.

"They're coming!" As the cry went out from the direction of the school, Akane stopped her rant. Ranma released Akane's hand as Akane began psyching herself up before charging in. Ranma casually walked after her, sparing a moment to visually track what looked like a soccer player flying away from the school and verify that he was probably going to be okay.

By the time she had a clear view of the schoolyard the crowd of sports players was devastated, with most of those left standing dragging away their wounded. She crossed the gate in time to see Akane throw a sumo wrestler at Kuno, who tried but narrowly failed to get out of the way.

[-]

Ranma stared uncomprehendingly at the envelopes erupting out of her shoe box. Why would anyone do such a thing? Furtively picking one up she opened it and quickly glanced through it trying to make sense of its presence. As she noted the very obviously masculine name the letter dropped from her hands as she felt her stomach begin to turn. Quickly glancing around she noticed some guys looking at her and recoiled.

Slowly glancing back that the shoe box, she squashed the urge to bolt and calmly extricated she shoes from the box before gathering up the letters and dumping them in a wastebin. She managed to maintain her cool as she made her way to the sports fields, where Akane was playing baseball with an all female team today. She was relieved to find a spot overlooking the field that was otherwise unoccupied.

As she watched Akane shatter a bat in the process of scoring a home run her thoughts drifted back to the letters, and what they meant. Intellectually she knew that she was attractive, but the idea of a guy… She suppressed the urge to throw up. Even the thought of a guy kissing her was too disgusting to contemplate.

She turned her attention back to watching Akane, but her thoughts drifted back to the fact those guys weren't going to just go away. It'd be so simple if she could tell them that her and Akane were an item. Then they'd leave her alone, and Akane could dote on her. The thought warmed her, only to be broken by the thought that Akane wasn't interested in girls.

Ranma sighed feeling listless, and grateful that no one was nearby.

[-]

Akane came out of the locker room to find Ranma waiting for her. Before she could say anything Ranma was in her arms, hugging her tightly. Ranma buried her face in her shoulder, and Akane held her as she felt her shoulder begin to dampen.

Kasumi had always emphasized to her that sometimes a girl just needed to have a good cry. Akane moved to the side so that the others could walk past, but otherwise let Ranma be. Eventually her silent sobs stopped, and Akane felt Ranma relax against her.

"We're friends, right?" Akane blinked at the question.

"Of course." What had happened?

"Well look at you two." Akane glanced up to find her sister standing there.

"Shut up, Nabiki." Could she knock it off? Honestly, it seemed like sometimes Nabiki considered the purpose of her existence to be getting on her nerves.

"Yeesh, Akane. Your generous older sister bought a pair of vouchers to a local cake shop and because my friend didn't show up I was going to give them to you two, but if you're going to be like that I guess I'll just have to hold onto them."

Akane's eyebrow twitched as she noticed the cake shop embossed on the vouchers. It was one all the girls at school raved about. Nabiki slowly waved the vouchers around while continuing her mock drama about what a horrible, ungrateful younger sister she was.

"Fine." She conceded.

"Fine, what?" Nabiki prompted.

"You're the best sister a girl could ask for." Akane managed to get out without gagging.

Nabiki smirked, and handed over the vouchers before walking off in the direction of home.

[-]

Ranma stared at her cake as a torrent of thoughts ran through her mind. Was this a date? She was alone with Akane, and even if it had been Nabiki's idea it was still Akane's treat. Did she dare confess? No, as much as she wished it otherwise Akane would reject her just like all the other girls before.

This place was nice. She vaguely remembered seeing places like this before, but it wasn't like she'd ever been in one. The Old Man didn't exactly have money to spare, and these places were clearly intended for girls to hang out with other girls while eating fancy slices of cake and trying out different types of tea. "Thank you." Ranma heard her voice crack, and realized she was showing weakness.

She was glad Akane didn't seem to mind, even if it wasn't the way she wanted Akane to see her. "Is this your first time?"

She nodded, feeling a little more confident. "It's very good." The thought of Akane feeding her suddenly sprung into her mind, and she quickly tried to suppress it.

"I'm glad you like it." Akane responded happily.

Trying to shift the conversation to something which would take her mind off Akane doting on her Ranma asked, "What about you? Have you been to a cake shop before?"

Akane blinked, and looked away. "Of course I have."

Ranma recognized Akane was just trying to look cool. She smiled, Akane was so cute sometimes. Offering a piece of cake she declared, "Say, Ahhh."

As her brain caught up her Ranma started to freak out, but Akane accepted the bite of cake acting like nothing had happened. Ranma was still trying to get her nerves under control when Akane reciprocated the gesture. She had never tasted cake the taste as good as that bite.

[-]

Ranma rushed to the furo when she got home. As the change finished he felt the unnerving ghosts of the feeling of his girl side. A guy wasn't supposed to feel like that. Since he'd gotten this curse though, it wasn't exactly like he'd been given a real choice.

He played with the water, glad he had thought to put a sign on the door. Maybe Akane would stay out this time. His girl side fell in love with girls so easily, and it never seemed to go anywhere. At first he had thought it was kind of cool, but then he'd begun to appreciate it didn't feel the same as a girl. He didn't want to even think about what had been running through his girl side's head when she'd rushed in here.

Still feeling out of sorts he quickly finished up and got dressed, before heading out to the dojo to train. He needed something to take his mind off of her. Looking at the exercise routine on the big white board he decided following it was a good as anything else and started going through the routine.

He was halfway done when he heard the door slide open. He considered looking up for a moment, before deciding it wasn't worth the bother. Whoever it was, he was sure they'd announce their presence shortly. If it was the Old Man he might open with a kick, but if he kept working out at least he wouldn't bitch at him about lacking dedication. Maybe he'd get lucky and whoever it was would take the hint to leave him alone.

[-]


End file.
